China dissident artist Ai Weiwei makes operatic debut with ‘Turandot’ in Rome
- Ai’s production of Puccini’s opera includes bloodshed, despotism, new geopolitical focus, with Ukrainian Oksana Lyniv conducting
- Artist uses video images to intensify sense of state-sponsored menace; shows refugees, truncheons, tear gas, fences – with open-ended finale
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei makes his directorial operatic debut in Rome on Tuesday with a new reading of Giacomo Puccini’s final, unfinished opera, “Turandot”.
And with a storyline seeping with bloodshed and despotism, a new geopolitical focus and Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv in the pit, the new production – originally meant to have premiered in 2020, but delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic – comes exactly on time.
From the ominous opening five notes, the audience is plunged into an uncertain, violent world and 64-year-old Ai never lets up the pressure.
The production, which opens at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, is a fitting project for an artist known for his installations, sculpture and photography that denounce authority and champion human rights and freedom of expression.
The presence of rising star Lyniv, who became the first woman ever to conduct at Germany’s prestigious Bayreuth festival last year, further ramps up the immediacy of the production in face of the outbreak of war in Europe.
“It’s beyond the imagination that we are still in the middle of these [territorial] conflicts,” Ai told reporters last week.
“We’re experiencing the biggest human struggle in Europe. Over three million Ukrainian people have been pushed out because of war caused by Russia,” he said, speaking in English.
